The schools will leave the conference, per conference bylaws, on June 30, 2015, ESPN.com reported.

Rhoades, speaking at Saturday’s basketball game at Hofheinz Pavilion, said “it was in the best interest of the University of Houston” to join the Big East earlier this year and “we still think that” despite the constant changes due to an unsettled conference realignment sweeping college football.

The Cougars are scheduled to join the Big East on July 1, 2013.

“We’re always going to do what’s best for UH,” Rhoades said, “and what’s best for UH today is the Big East.”

Rhoades said UH will continue to monitor the situation involving conference realignment and “spend our energy thinking about the future and making the Big East a great league.

“We like where we’re at and we think the Big East will be a good place for us,” he added. “We’re going to focus on what we can control. If we get better as a program we’re going to help make the Big East better.”

UH will begin construction on a new 40,000-seat on-campus stadium in February and there are plans to renovate Hofheinz Pavilion.

“We need to get better as a athletic program and continue to move in the right direction,” Rhoades said. “I think we’re doing that – sometimes not as quick as I want – but we’re moving in that direction.”

With the seven schools that announced intentions Saturday, the Big East has lost 17 schools since 2004. That includes most recently Syracuse, Pittsburgh (in 2013) and Louisville (2014) to the Atlantic Coast Conference and Rutgers (2014) to the Big Ten.

The Big East still has plans for a 12-team football conference in 2013 with six newcomers – UH, SMU, UCF, Boise State, San Diego State and Memphis – joining Temple, Connecticut, Cincinnati, Rutgers, Louisville and USF.

The Big East has also added East Carolina and Tulane during the past month.

“We have some really good schools,” Rhoades said. “We shouldn’t be ashamed of anything.”